Anita Miller is the recipient of SMRF’s Environmental Reporting Award. For 32 years, Anita written for the San Marcos Daily Record, and her beautiful photographs and her articles have covered all sides of the many environmental issues that pop up in San Marcos. Of course, most of these environmental issues seem to be about the river and aquifer because clean water is so important to any community. Since she has lived near the river for 28 years now, she has firsthand knowledge of the problems and the delights of being so close to such a beautiful river and truly understands the love the community has for this river. She has witnessed and covered so many newsworthy things happening on the river, from floods to droughts, the herbicide tanker truck that almost fell into the river at Westerfield crossing and the truck that did plunge off of the Interstate spilling diesel. She covered the bulldozing that went on at the Hillert tract last summer that was shut down because they didn’t have any permits and continues to pursue the topics which address the health and welfare of the river for the community.
In recent years, there has been a lot of controversy about river issues, and Anita has covered all sides in the arguments. Her recent series about the intricacies of the technical details in the TCEQ files about the Superfund site near the river at Thompson’s Islands and Stokes Park, was a marvel. We know the TCEQ reports do not make light reading, but yet she explained them very clearly to the community. Her stories in general usually have quotes from all sides and great detail—answering the very questions you would have asked if you could have interviewed those involved. Of course, Anita doesn’t get to only write about the environment, she has many other duties, but we single her out tonight to honor her for her environmental reporting, which is valuable to this community, and much appreciated.
